The US Department of Commerce (DOC) and the US International Trade Commission (ITC) formally instituted their third set of sunset reviews of the antidumping orders against forged stainless steel flanges from India and Taiwan on Monday.
The DOC's sunset regulations virtually guarantee an affirmative finding that revocation of these dumping orders will likely lead to the continuation or recurrence of dumping. However, a negative injury determination by the ITC will result in the revocation of these antidumping orders regardless of the DOC's decision. This is the reason that, in most sunset cases, foreign producers and US consumers concentrate their resources and their efforts at the ITC.
In order to insure that the ITC conducts a full review of these orders, at least some of the foreign producers must respond to the ITC's institution notice, which contains several questions. Importers may also submit responses to the ITC's questions. The deadline for submitting responses to the ITC is December 1, 2010.
The product covered by these investigations is currently classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) under item numbers: 7307.21.10 and 7307.21.50